From Russia with Love (1963)

James Bond willingly falls into an assassination ploy involving a naive Russian beauty in order to retrieve a Soviet encryption device that was stolen by SPECTRE.

Director:

Terence Young

Writers:

Richard Maibaum (screenplay), Johanna Harwood (adaptation),

Stars:

Sean Connery, Daniela Bianchi, Lotte Lenya

Nominated for 1 Golden Globe. Another 4 wins & 2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Sean Connery	...	James Bond
Daniela Bianchi	...	Tatiana Romanova
Pedro Armendáriz	...	Kerim Bey (as Pedro Armendariz)
Lotte Lenya	...	Rosa Klebb
Robert Shaw	...	Grant
Bernard Lee	...	M
Eunice Gayson	...	Sylvia Trench
Walter Gotell	...	Morzeny
Francis De Wolff	...	Vavra (as Francis de Wolff)
George Pastell	...	Train Conductor
Nadja Regin	...	Kerim's Girl
Lois Maxwell	...	Miss Moneypenny
Aliza Gur	...	Vida
Martine Beswick	...	Zora (as Martin Beswick)
Vladek Sheybal	...	Kronsteen

Storyline

James Bond 007 is on the search for a Russian decoding machine, known as Lektor. Bond needs to find this machine, before the evil SPECTRE organization discovers it first. Whilst being romantically linked with Russian girl, Tatiana Romanova, Bond sneaks his way around Istanbul, whilst each SPECTRE agent tries to pick him off, including the over powering Donald 'Red' Grant and ex-KGB agent Rosa Klebb who knows all the tricks in the books and even possesses an incredible poison tipped shoe!

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Plot Keywords:

spectre | russian | decoder | kgb | british secret service | 

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Taglines:

Blast him! Seduce him! Bomb him! Strangle him! Target: The Unkillable James Bond 007.

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Crime | Thriller

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English Russian Turkish Romany

Release Date:

27 May 1964 (USA)

Also Known As:

Bons baisers de Russie

Filming Locations:

"The Canals", Venice, Veneto, Italy

Box Office

Budget:

$2,000,000 (estimated)

Gross:

$24,800,000 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Eon Productions, Danjaq

Technical Specs

Runtime:

115 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Color:

Color (as Colour by) (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The budget was $2,000,000 (double that of Dr. No).

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Goofs

When 007 is hiding it the rocks to shoot at the helicopter his hat disappears.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Morzeny: [after Grant kills a look-a-like Bond] Exactly one minute, fifty-two seconds. That's excellent.

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Crazy Credits

Monty Norman's name is misspelled Monte Norman in the credits.

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Connections

Referenced in If You Only Knew (2000)

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Soundtracks

"From Russia With Love"
Title song written by Lionel Bart
Sung by Matt Monro
Music Conducted by Johnnie Spence

User Reviews

Better than Fleming's Novel!

Hard to believe, but the movie is actually an improvement on Fleming's novel. Rather than have the Lektor operation be a simple Russian scheme to discredit Bond as Fleming did, SPECTRE takes a hand here in their first on-screen appearance as an organization. The plot is improved considerably because of this. The movie thrives on its supporting actors and Sheybal. Connery is somewhat outshone by these greater lights, but gives a credible performance. From Russia... is a different pace of movie: no one here is intent on wiping out the world's population, or destroying the gold supply, or stealing submarines. Basically, it's a quiet little plot focusing on an elaborate "sting" operation. Until the end, the pace is kind of slow, and might lose more "modern" audiences, particularly those used to incredible stunt sequences every 20 minutes.